


i know the sound of your heart

by poetrysles



Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mutual Pining, References to Depression, University AU, flatmates AU, kinda enemies to friends to lovers?? kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-08 02:10:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetrysles/pseuds/poetrysles
Summary: will and dan need a new flatmate





	i know the sound of your heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhh i'm not sure of what i'm supposed to say? this is the first fic i'm actually putting out there. i want it to be a whole-ass fic, with like at least 20 chapters, and i've got loads of ideas so yeah hopefully this is going to work out? anyways i hope you guys will enjoy reading this first chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it, and i also want to apologise for any mistake that i might have made as i'm not a native English speaker. feel free to point out those mistakes so that i can try and better myself!! xx

Getting out of bed had never been easy for Dan. In fact, getting into bed had never been easy either. Nothing was ever easy. But getting out of bed for a meeting he certainly did not wish to attend was even worse. It was all Will’s fault, really. Supposedly, Will was his best friend and flatmate — mostly flatmate, Dan had recently decided, given the circumstances —, and he had thoroughly insisted on the fact that they needed someone else to share the bills with. To what Dan had retorted that no, they didn’t, thank you very much, and that he would manage to find a new job if it was what it took for his friend to finally drop the idea of inviting some stranger into their sacred lair. But there was no changing Will’s mind when it was set on something, and right now, it was set on adding a third party to their flat-share. The subject of Will’s affection was a Leeds University student he had been introduced to through a friend of his at a party. They really hadn’t talked that much, according to what Will had said, and for all they knew, he could even have been a murderer or a thief. The only thing Will could remember him saying through the daze the alcohol he had been drinking had put him in, was that he studied music at the very same university Dan studied English literature and Will studied - when he actually bothered attending classes and lectures - media. This guy, whatever his name was, had then somehow suggested meeting up at the café across their street on the following day, with Dan this time, since he had refused to tag along with Will to the party. And, _oh boy_ did Dan regret not tagging along now. If he’d gone, maybe Will wouldn’t have gotten bored and wouldn’t have been in desperate need of making new acquaintances, and them living with a new flatmate would have remained purely hypothetic. It would have given Dan time to come up with another way of reducing the cost of the bills, at least. 

Nevertheless, Will dragged him out of bed the next morning and pushed him into the bathroom, urging him to get ready as quickly as possible. So Dan eventually did. He was now up anyways, and the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he would get back to wrapping himself up in a blanket and doing nothing more than maybe watching films on his laptop. Grabbing a grey hoodie as he got out of the bathroom after a quick freshening-up, he then followed Will out of the flat.

The only thing he was able to think about as they entered the café though, was how fucking cold to his bones he was — but this was the usual —, and how he just wished he could be anywhere else but here — again, nothing more than the usual. Will seemed to sense the tension emanating from him, because he stopped right in his tracks on the doorstep and turned to face him.

“Don’t worry. It’ll go well. Just be your charming self,” he said, and there was no need to be exceptionally smart to sense the irony coming from his words, as he was still probably thinking of how Dan had greeted him with groans and protests just a few hours ago, when he had woken him up. “He’ll definitely fall in love with you. Just like that. Love at first sight,” he teased him, elbowing him gently in the ribs.

Dan loved that about his friend, the fact that he knew about his, let’s put it that way, _lack of social skills_ , but didn’t take pity on him. Usually, when people learned about his condition, they would just go on and on forever about it, making it such a big deal, going out of their way to try and make him feel comfortable — which actually almost always ended up having the opposite of the desired effect. Although there were also other people who just _didn’t care_ , who thought he was just being a tad overdramatic and maybe a bit lazy too, and that, in his opinion, was still better than people trying to persistently comfort him, in vain. Will was in-between. He cared for Dan a great deal, and he had stuck with him through thick and thin, but he would never not be his sarcastic self for the mere purpose of sparing Dan’s feelings. Dan was grateful for that.

“Yeah. Like that’s going to happen,” he brought himself to mutter in reply, scanning the relatively small room in search of a guy that could look like someone who would be their new flatmate.

Will beat him to it. “He’s there!” he exclaimed, pointing his finger at a bar table a few steps further. 

A boy was indeed seating there, looking rather caught up in his action of observing the beverage in the cup laying in front of him. Dan felt his stomach clutch. For a brief moment, he had hoped the guy had been over-drunk the previous night and would realise as he woke up that he wasn’t actually interested in living with two strangers, now that he was remotely sober, and would therefore not bother showing up. But it was a well-known fact that luck was never on Dan’s side. So once again, he went on with it, pulled his sleeves over his hands and trod on Will’s heels as he approached their possibly new flatmate. As soon as they reached him, the boy looked up, and he broke into a wide smile that brightened up his entire face.

“Hi, Will, mate!” he greeted him, before shifting his gaze to the blue-eyed man standing behind him. “And you must be Dan? Hi, I’m Kyle!”

 _No shit, genius_. Kyle stretched out his hand for him to shake. Just like that, Dan knew he would hate living with the guy. So no point awarded to Will. It was definitely _not_ love at first sight. This Kyle guy was exuding with self-confidence, enthusiasm and friendliness and Dan just… couldn’t deal with that. Of course, Dan knew better than to judge a book by its cover, but still, Kyle seemed to be exactly the kind of person he couldn’t stand spending time with. Easy-going, warm-hearted, cheerful, but mostly, _alive_ , when with every beat of his heart, Dan prayed more and more for the ground to swallow him whole. As a consequence, he found it hard to appreciate people who had everything he wished for. Selfish and a bit narcissistic, he knew that, but then again, he couldn’t help the way he felt. He just literally had no energy to do something about it, which would certainly not make him feel better about himself, because how could he be so numb to what others felt? It was a vicious circle he could never get out of.

“Yeah, he’s Dan,” Will said on his behalf, as a few minutes had went by since Kyle had spoken and Dan wasn't saying anything. “Please excuse him for being rude. He’s usually not like that. Right, Dan?” He tilted his head to the side and shot him a sharp glance.

“Sorry. I’m just a bit tired. I’m Dan, indeed.” he repeated pointlessly, finally reluctantly shaking the guy’s hand.

At that, they sat facing Kyle, and once Will had ordered a cup of tea and Dan had asked for an extra strong coffee, they stared at one another awkwardly. Dan was already getting bored, and he found himself wishing that he was in his bed yet once again. He definitely wasn’t going to be the one to break the silence that had fallen upon them, so he took it as his cue to have a better look at the boy sitting across them. The first thing he noted was that the man was wearing a beanie even though there was no need for it in the warmth of the room they were sitting in. Some kind of hispter, probably. This feeling was reinforced by the fact that he was apparently growing his beard out — but it was quite sparse, suggesting that Dan had been wrong to think of him as a _man_ as he was obviously still transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. His eyes were nice, though. Dan liked his eyes. To others, they might have been nothing more than brown eyes, nothing to be compared with blue or green irises, but not to him. He had always been one to believe that there was a certain stiffness in light-coloured eyes, and he would much rather stare into the intensity and the depth of brown eyes. Not that Dan would like to stare in Kyle’s gaze, with that being said. The bearded man was still an inconvenience to his life. He’d prefer having him out of sight if he could, but Will didn’t seem to agree. At that stage of his reflection, Kyle seemed to feel Dan’s stare lingering on him, because he shifted uncomfortably in his seat and cleared his throat.

“So…” Kyle seemed to hesitate. “You guys looking for a flatmate?”

“Oh, yeah. We are. Can you just tell us a bit more about yourself? You know, so that we can try and see if this would work out and make sure we won't end up being at one another’s throats,” Will prompted him.

“Uh..of course,” he replied, rubbing his forehead. “So, I’m Kyle, but you know that already, and I’m 18. I study music, and I mainly play keys, so I guess that the only thing I genuinely need out of this is a place where I can actually play without having someone shouting at me for making too much noise. Also, I’m from London, if that’s something you’re interested in knowing. And it would be wicked if you guys would allow me to take my two cats back from my sister to live with me. Us, I mean. And yeah, that’s it. I have a job so I’m financially stable enough to pay the rent, I can even pay like, the first three months in advance as a guarantee that I won’t screw you over. I can also promise that I won’t throw a party when you’re gone, if you’re ever gone, and that I won’t go through your stuff. Cross my heart and hope to die? I just really, really need somewhere to live right now. There’s no way I’m staying in my dorm with… Anyways. I’ll be exemplary, I swear. My only two requests are for you to let me bring my keyboard and my cats,” the boy pleaded, sounding pathetically desperate.

Dan frowned. He hated cats. They were hard to read and they always looked like they were up to something, which was why he always felt uncomfortable around them, unsure of how to act. So to him, right now, it only sounded like he wasn’t going to be obligated to live with one more person, but three. He didn’t want that. Just as he was about to mention it to Will, hoping it would be enough for him to back off and let Kyle go with an apologetic smile, his friend straightened up in his seat and shrugged.

“You got it, mate. Dan plays keyboards too, and I play the bass, so you adding up another keyboard won’t hurt us. And none of us are allergic to cats, so as long as you don’t ask us to take care of them for you, it’s fine, I guess.”

It surely wasn’t fine with Dan. But he didn’t want to argue. Thus, for the third time this day, he went on with it and said nothing, letting himself be carried by the current. This would just give him another reason to remain hidden in his room and never come out, unless he had to eat or classes to attend.

Kyle grinned, and Dan felt a weird pang in his chest. His smile was just so authentic, like they had saved his life by saying that yes, he could live with them, and he ended up wondering how one could feel something so genuine that their smile actually _did_ reach their eyes.

“Thank you so much!” the boy said, jumping off the barstool he was seating on to take them both by surprise and hug them.

 _Hugger much, then. Fucking perfect_. Another thing Dan hated. Hugs. They always seemed fake to him, because how could anyone in their right mind want to hold and touch him when he couldn’t stand his own reflection in the mirror? There was also, obviously, the fact that he just didn’t like to be touched, plain and simple. However, that was a story for another day, since Will fortunately got him out of Kyle’s overwhelming embrace by speaking once again.

“You wanna take a look at what you’re getting into? Our place is just across the street.”

At that, Kyle turned to Dan. The blue-eyed man stared blankly back at him, not quite getting what he was expecting from him.

“Do you mind if I do, Dan?” he asked softly.

Dan didn’t answer right away as the younger man had caught him off guard. He wasn’t that used to people actually caring about how he felt about things. _Damn_. He couldn’t possibly say that yes, he did mind now, right? He wasn’t usually rude, that much was true. Just… not very cooperative.

“It’s okay. I mean… No, I don’t mind.”

And so that’s how they winded up standing in the middle of the living-room after Kyle had visited the flat —more specifically, the split-level flat. Dan’s bedroom was upstairs, laid out under the rafters, which made it a very confined space, but he was okay with it, if it wasn’t for the fact that his head would occasionally bump into the ceiling. It made it even more of a safe place, with his film posters hung on the walls and his CDs, vinyls and books piling up all over the room. The other two rooms were downstairs, along with the kitchenette separated from the living-room by a counter, and the bathroom. Right now, what would be Kyle’s room was used as some kind of storeroom, where Dan had shoved his keyboard and the rest of the stuff he still hadn’t had the courage to go through. Will was slightly more organised than he was, so it was mostly Dan’s things in Kyle’s future room, and it meant that, as might have been expected, Kyle would yet again bring the most trouble to Dan because he would be the one to have to move all of his stuff. But in spite of the mess that had taken over the room, Kyle seemed to like it. It was therefore arranged that he would move in as soon as the week-end came, and with that, he was finally gone.

“So? What did you think? He was pretty nice, right?” Will questioned Dan afterwards.

Dan snorted at him, but nodded nonetheless. “Yeah, he was.” Of course he was. That was Dan’s bloody point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed reading this lads and please, if you have a minute, leave a comment to tell me what i might have been doing wrong - or right for that matter!! xxx


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